It’s an exciting time to look at impact investing in India, says Maya Chorengel

ET Bureau|

Updated: Dec 08, 2017, 12.31 AM IST

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'We do not have quotas for any markets. That said, two of the five deals we have done to date have been in India," Maya Chorengel said.

US-based private equity firm TPG Growth’s social impact vehicle, The Rise Fund, recently raised $2 billion for global investments and is exploring big-ticket deals in areas such as education, energy, food and agriculture, including in India. Edited excerpts from an interview:

What makes it a good time to enter India? We believe that a confluence of social and technological factors has brought impact investing to an inflection point, from where we believe it can be executed at scale globally. The private sector is an important and underutilized player in addressing important societal needs, in India and around the world. It’s a particularly exciting time to look at impact investing in India because of the dynamic economic growth, insight of local entrepreneurs, and important societal needs.

India’s overall growth rate, rate of private consumption, and the size of the emerging middle class are all growing. Within the market, there are also exceptionally talented entrepreneurs, many of whom studied and lived abroad and are now coming back to India to build businesses. These are the types of leaders and businesses that we’re looking to partner with.

What sectors and ticket sizes interest you for impact investment? The Rise Fund’s impact objectives align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. As a result, we focus on investments in sectors where great need coexists with great potential and independent research shows that impact is both achievable and measurable in quantitative terms.

We have thus identified seven sectors for investing in which TPG already has substantial experience— education, energy, food and agriculture, financial services, growth infrastructure, healthcare, and technology, media and telecommunications (TMT). In terms of ticket size, as the largest private impact investing fund to date, we are looking at cheque sizes similar to what TPG Growth targets, i.e., in the range of $50-150 million.

Does The Rise Fund have any fund commitment to India? The Rise Fund has a global mandate. We evaluate deals based on their potential to make competitive financial returns and positive, measureable social impact, regardless of geography. We do not have quotas for any markets. That said, two of the five deals we have done to date have been in India.

How open is The Rise Fund to co-investment deals with other impact funds or mainstream venture capital funds in India? The Rise Fund has a strategic co-investment partnership with Elevar. Elevar, a venture capital firm that I co-founded, invests in transformative and scalable entrepreneurial ventures focused on low-income communities. Elevar has brought billions of dollars of capital into more than 25 companies in India and Latin America and has a team based in India, Colombia, and the US. We recently made a co-investment with Elevar into a company called LEAD, whose mission is to empower India by making excellent education accessible to children in underserved communities who attend affordable private schools.

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